WIRKSWORTH, Derbyshire

Bibliography

• Doxey, Jack - O'er Back and on the Hillock. Wirksworth & District Historical Society, 2002. ISBN 0-906753-15-5.
  
  
• DVDReview - Wirksworth: A Town of Stone and Steam. Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Association, 2006.
  
  
• Jones, Brian - Beyond The Copper Beech. Published by the Author, 2008. No ISBN.
  
  
• Priestley, Frank - The Wirksworth Saga. Pipers Ash (Chippenham), 2003. No ISBN.
  
  
• Wirksworth in Old Picture Postcards. European Library, 2000. ISBN 90 288 2200 3.

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Census

• The parish was in the Wirksworth sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
  
  
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
  
  

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Civil Registration

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
  
  
• The parish was in the Wirksworth sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
  

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Description and Travel

"WIRKSWORTH is a market-town, in the parish of its name, which is partly in the hundred of Wirksworth, and extending into those of Appletree and High Peak; 139 miles from London, 48 S.S.E. from Manchester, 20 S.E. from Buxton, 14 S. by W. from Chesterfield, the like distance N.N.W. from Derby, 6 N.W. from Belper, and 3 S. from Matlock Bath; situate near to the direct road from the metropolis to Manchester. In Domesday survey it is called Werchesvorde, but, according to vulgar tradition, it took its derivation from the circumstance of malefactors being condemned to work in the lead-mines here, and their labours proving valuable, it was said their work is worth, hence the easy transition to its present mode of spelling."

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]

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Gazetteers

• The transcription of the section for Wirksworth from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.

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Politics and Government

• This place was an ancient parish in Derbyshire and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
• This parish was the heart of the ancient Wirksworth Hundred (or Wapentake).

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Schools

• A grammar school at Wirksworth was founded in 1584 by Anthony Gell and others.
  (Ref: A History of Derbyshire, Gladwyn Turbutt, 1999)

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